How Douyin (Tik Tok) went viral in China

Douyin is the hottest short video app in China. What's more astonishing than its huge user base is the level of engagement. The average user watches over 120 videos daily.

• Fun to watch
  Unlike Youtube, Douyin's videos are rarely polished, but 15-second clips that are original and straight-up fun.
• Easy to make
  Douyin has an intuitive editing interface and an extensive library of music and effects. Anyone with a phone can produce a video with a few taps.
• Addictive
  In-your-face: videos only play full screen and loop endlessly.
  Swipe only: no pausing. Swipe up or down, to watch another video.
  Personalized content: algorithms will choose the next videos for you based on past preferences.
• Key Opinion Leaders
  KOLs are especially influential on Douyin because of the highly engaged users.
  The top 10 KOLs on Douyin have average 30M followers. And each post is averaging 1M likes, 25K comments, and 20K shares.
• E-commerce
  To leverage KOLs for e-commerce, Douyin developed a shopping cart feature that lets the users purchase the products shown in the video.
• Douyin's hashtag challenges inspire a creator-friendly community.
  Fun challenges: users get creative with tasks, like hand gesture dancing and make-up before & after.
  Viral: often after KOLs participate, a challenge will get thousands of participants and millions of plays.

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